


Life is nothing but a silly game

by AllTheSnakes



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Implied Relationships, M/M, Monster of the Week, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 14:03:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19274809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllTheSnakes/pseuds/AllTheSnakes
Summary: Sam and Dean mess things up with a strange entity. Fortunately, they can count on some very special guys.





	Life is nothing but a silly game

**Author's Note:**

> This could happen around Scoobynatural.

‘You want us to do what?!’, Dean asked in outrage, struggling against the magical bonds.

‘Choose your player’, the entity in front of him repeated itself grinning nefariously, ‘It’s not such a difficult concept, human’.

‘Why would I do it? And where is my brother?’

‘He is currently asking the same questions, to the same me, in another place’, the creature rolled its… well, eyes, ‘You’re a very boring kind’.

‘You kidnap us and want us to play along in your silly games?’

‘First, you’re the ones who came into my domains. Second, no game is silly: silly is the one who doesn’t enjoy games’.

Dean rolled his eyes and had decided to keep the argument going – irritating the monster of the week until an opportunity arose was always on the Winchesters’ menu – but suddenly there was a screen in front of him and his hands were glued to an old-fashioned joystick.

‘What the Hell?!’, he stared in disbelief at the thing in his hands.

‘Behold!’, the creature bellowed, producing an echo in the dark chamber where they were, ‘I may have outdone myself with this one!’ 

Dean frowned, then looked at the screen that had appeared.

It was huge and was displaying avatars of every person whom he loved and was currently deceased, each one carrying a different weapon.

The monster spoke with pride, ‘Nice, uhm?’

If Dean was to be sincere, the answer would be yes. 

The avatars were nice. 

Pamela, for example, had a cleavage and her weapon was a magical pendant; Ash was sporting his trademark haircut and carrying what seemed to be a Swiss army knife; Ellen and Jo Harvelle were together and had shotguns. 

Dean was starting to have fun, passing from a character to the other, waves of nostalgia hitting him at the memories, when the putrid smell of the creature in control of all that reached the side of his face, ‘Choose your player, Winchester’.

A bit squeamish at the proximity, Dean made an effort to get away from the monster, ‘What are the rules?’

‘You choose the one you think can complete the phases to the end…’, a greenish…, well, finger pointed a small map on a corner of the screen, ‘… and get here to save you’.

‘What about Sammy?’

‘He is choosing his hero, too’.

Dean squinted, wary, ‘If our chosen ones finish the phases, we win and you free me and my brother?’

‘Obviously. No rules, no fun’.

‘How many tries they get?’

‘Each one has three lives, like in any decent game’.

‘What if they fail?’

‘You lose’.

‘What does it mean?’

‘You’re stalling’, the creature growled, then frowned, ‘Both of you’.

Dean smiled. He and his little brother really thought alike, ‘Ok, one last question’.

The monster snarled, ‘Be quick’.

‘Which are the challenges in the phases?’, the hunter raised his brows, ‘It’s not fair if I don’t know what my player will have to face’.

‘Agreed’, pointy teeth appeared, ‘They are going to face challenges you and your brother know about’.

‘What?’, Dean adjusted himself in the magical bonds. He had just noticed they weakened when the creature was occupied, and he hoped Sammy had noticed, too, ‘What does it mean? The character should face what they hav-’

‘Enough!’, the fetid odor was back, ‘Choose your player!’

Dean made a bitchface worth of Sam but prepared to comply – if a haunted old video game had brought them to such an absurd situation, he better make the best and play along until he could bash this fugly’s head down and find his brother. 

The hunter looked at the big screen in front of him and focused.

 

xxx

 

‘Balls!’, Bobby exclaimed, cutting off the head of the last vampire and feeling again the light from above picking him up before he could take a good breath in.

Not that he needed to breathe, being now just a soul; but it would be nice to have time to think, find out what was going on and maybe get his way around the tasks he was being presented. 

Bobby had already understood the main scenario: when the powerful creature abducted him from Heaven babbling something about a game for the Winchesters and deposited him in the middle of an empty arena with a shotgun, he just rolled his eyes and prepared for the bullshit that was coming.

(To be sincere, he kind of expected Honky-Kong and Pac-Man, not packs of vampires, djinns and wendigoes, but it felt good to be useful again, stretch imaginary muscles and help his boys.)

He won the first battles easily, and the tunnel of light lifted him gracelessly to the next phase.

The challenges kept coming – werewolves, demons, vampires, ghosts –, and he kept winning them all. 

At the completion of each task, the tunnel of light came back from above to transport him to wherever he must be to slay the next bunch of monsters.

(It happened so many times that he stopped flailing his arms and legs like a crazy cat and managed some elegance during the transportation.)

 

xxx

 

Bobby got a bit annoyed when the task was to research and save fifteen hunters who had been calling his old house at the same time.

He managed, but almost lost one of his lives in that one. 

 

xxx

 

He got bothered when he was forced to face Rufus as a revengeful spirit.

It was not a battle that demanded a lot from his abilities or cleverness – whatever was simulating his old hunting partner, it couldn’t surprise Bobby enough to menace him. 

However, killing someone who he considered a friend was painful.

 

xxx

 

Bobby’s temper went boiling when the task was to protect a door from a clearly psychotic John Winchester while hearing children crying behind it.

John had never attacked his own sons. Bobby saw the man’s sorrows and identified with it to some degree – he had lost his wife to a monster, too, in some way.

 

xxx

 

Speaking of that, when Karen approached him as a brain-eating zombie, he just shot her in the head with no fussing.

He would not give the creature in charge the pleasure of seeing him struggle. He knew that was not Karen, and he made clear it was useless to try to get him through the mind.

So, the physical challenges were back, and kept coming.

 

xxx

 

Bobby hoped those vampires had been the last mission. 

As much glad as he was to have a piece of action and help Sam and Dean, it was unnerving not to know how much he still had ahead.

 

xxx

 

‘The first champion arrived to the final arena!’, the creature announced excitedly, almost dancing in front of the brothers, ‘We wait to see if the other is going to manage, too!’

Sam and Dean had been watching everything separately, and now were deeply relieved to be side by side again.

The huge screen showed Bobby appearing in a tunnel of light.

Sam and Dean cheered.

They knew he probably couldn’t hear them, but it was Bobby, unscathed and looking like a hero. Of course they would cheer.

Besides, the Winchesters were in the same room again.

Things seemed to be getting brighter for them.

Their champion looked at his hands and made such an annoyed face that it was obvious he had been separated from some badass weapon.

The Winchesters immediately voiced their disagreement on that – if the guy had won every disgusting challenge until then, didn’t he deserve to keep something for the last mission? That was how the best games worked!

‘Be quiet’, the monster made a gesture and they couldn’t produce any more articulated sounds, ‘I want to hear’.

The brothers grunted but stopped to watch while Bobby carefully inspected the whole place, investigating every corner for clues on what he was going to do next and, possibly, looking for anything that could help him defend himself.

Sam and Dean exchanged confident looks.

Their surrogate father never disappointed them! 

‘The other is closer’, the creature squinted at the map on the corner of the screen, where a small red dot was approaching the spot where their current phase ended, ‘If the last challenge is won, they will fight for the honor of freeing you!’

The boys were wide-eyed at that, and protested emphatically against the magic bonds, making their chairs bounce.

‘You thought it was a cooperative game?’, pointy teeth flashed, ‘I never said it was’.

Dean mouthed ‘Son of a bitch’ many, many, many times.

The creature seemed unfazed, ‘You two chose well; the first one defeated everything quicker than I expected; the second one is arriving any second. None needed extra lives. We will have a very entertaining final battle!’

Sam and Dean struggled against the bonds indignantly, again.

‘Don’t be impatient’, the monster rubbed his… well, hands excitedly, ‘Just a moment… Ah! Here he comes!’

A new tunnel of light from above appeared in the arena.

When it was over, a familiar man clad in black was standing there.

He was disheveled and there were some nasty colorful stains in his clothes, and he definitively seemed a bit shaken, but he was generally as dignified as ever.

He raised his eyes to look around and saw Bobby, who had been watching him in expectation.

His face got illuminated, ‘Hello, Robert’.

The hunter smiled at him, ‘What took you so long?’

The former King of Hell made a disgusted face, ‘You don’t want to know, love’.

Bobby nodded in understanding, ‘Well, I’ve-’ 

Suddenly, a demon’s knife appeared on Bobby’s hand.

And a common knife appeared on Crowley’s hand.

They looked at each other, clearly realizing what was expected from them.

Both rolled their eyes at the same time, threw the weapons away and walked to each other.  
To embrace.

‘What is happening?!’, the monster yelled in panic, ‘What are they doing?!’

‘That’s called a hug’, Dean said, free from the magical gag and the magical bonds and whatever and ready to strike, ‘And this is game over for you’.

‘Dean’, Sam appeared behind the creature and grabbed it by the… well, shoulders, ‘Finish him’.

 

xxx

 

The death of the monster took the brothers off the video-game, landing uncomfortably on the floor of Sam’s room in the bunker.

‘Hey, idjits’, they heard and immediately got to their feet.

There, in the TV screen, were standing Bobby and Crowley, side by side against a solid blue background, smug smiles on their faces, staring at them.

‘Bobby!’, Sam got closer to the screen, ‘What happened? How was it possible?’ 

‘Is it really you?’, Dean approached, too, and looked at Crowley, ‘Are you two really you?’

‘You think some fake us could be such badasses?’, the demon scoffed, ‘You should know better, Squirrel’.

Bobby chuckled, ‘The entity making a fool of you was an old Japanese thing. So old it wanted to look modern by using videogames but lost its control over the situation when a glitch happened’.

‘A glitch?’, Sam was confused, ‘What kind of glitch?’

‘You two chose the same character to play for you’, Crowley answered, leaning his head towards the man at his side, ‘Dear old Bobby’.

‘You’re older than me, Princess’, Bobby contested.

‘Given the circumstances, I’d say I’ve lost my spot as princess in distress to your surrogate children’.

‘Wait, wait, wait!’, Dean interrupted the bickering, ‘If we chose Bobby, what are you doing here, Crowley?’

‘Oh, the ingratitude…’, the man in black put a hand over his heart in fake hurt.

‘I chose him’, Bobby explained, ‘You two picked me and the machine glitched. I convinced it the best to do was to leave the decision to me’, he rested a hand on the other’s shoulder, ‘And I chose someone I knew was a winner and I could trust with fighting by my side if things came to that’.

He spoke and their eyes met.

Crowley had an adoring expression on his face.

They kept gazing at each other, lost in some silent communication.

Suddenly remembering they were not alone and realizing there had been no answer or comment on what Bobby said, the men in the screen turned to the brothers.

Sam and Dean were staring at them with mouths open in shock.

‘I used to call them Moose and Squirrel’, Crowley was trying to suppress a laugh, ‘Now they look like fish’.

‘That they do’, Bobby smiled fondly at them.

‘I must admit they are cute’, Crowley said, ‘Not as much as you, but enough to resemble the man who raised them so beautifully’.

A new exchange of loving glances happened. 

Bobby broke the moment clearing his throat and forcing himself to look at the Winchesters, ‘So…’, his arm found his way naturally around Crowley’s shoulders, ‘Are we done saving your asses?’ 

It took them a moment, but Sam and Dean woke up from the surprise and nodded in agreement.

Sam smiled, recovering faster than his brother, ‘Thank you, Bobby’, he gestured to the other man, ‘And thank you, Crowley. Really’.

‘Yeah’, Dean spoke when Sam nudged him, ‘You are awesome’, he smiled sincerely and added, ‘Both of you’.

‘Alert of chick-flick moment’, Bobby said joyfully, ‘Let’s go before you cry, Princess’. 

The brothers looked at Crowley and their jaws fell again, because the former King of Hell was visibly touched by the whole exchange of niceties and shows of gratitude.

‘We’ll see you upstairs, boys’, Bobby waved to the Winchesters, ‘Don’t hurry’.

The screen went blank.

The brothers were still agape.

Suddenly, Dean opened his arms in astonishment, ‘What the Hell?!’

‘I don’t know!’

‘No, really, Sam: what the Hell?!’

Sam shook his head as if wakening up himself and looked at Dean, an arm extended and his legs apart, instinctively adopting a fighting pose, ‘Do you think they…?’

‘They what?’

‘Well… They reunited as if they had missed each other. Bobby spoked as if he cared. Crowley spoke as if he cared a lot. They hugged like old friends. They left as if they were going back to the same place. They-’

‘I’ve got it’, Dean cut him off raising a hand, ‘I just don’t want to think about it, Sammy’.

‘And Bobby called him-’

‘Sam!’

The younger brother made a pacifying gesture and breathed deeply to calm himself, ‘Ok. I’m out of it’.

Dean nodded and squared his shoulders, ‘I tell you something, man’, he pointed to the videogame, ‘Let’s break that thing’, he picked a hammer from a nearby desk, ‘And make sure we have a lot of time before we face those two again and find out the truth’.

 

xxx

 

And so they did.

Not because they didn’t agree with whatever put together those two guys who had been so important to them.

It was a relief, in fact, to know they were well. 

They did it because to keep fighting and alive was a Winchester thing, and knowing the ones you care about are happy is a very welcomed bonus.


End file.
